General Science.
The Earth’s Spheres
Our planet formed 4.5 billion years ago. Since then, it has
developed and modified four main physical environments that
interact strongly with one another.
1. Atmosphere: The layer of gases that surrounds the
Earth. The atmosphere protects us from the sun’s
intense heat and radiation, provides the air we
breathe, and produces weather.
2. Hydrosphere: The Earth’s water. The hydrosphere
includes all the liquid and frozen water of the Earth’s
oceans and land (groundwater), as well as water vapor
in the atmosphere.
3. Biosphere: All organisms living on and inside the
Earth’s surface.
4. Lithosphere: The rigid, relatively cool rocky zone
immediately under the Earth’s surface. The lithosphere
includes the Earth’s crust and part of the upper mantle.
The asthenosphere is the region in the upper mantle
(beneath the lithosphere) where rocks melt to form
magma (molten rock). The asthenosphere is less rigid
than the lithosphere and is able to flow. Movement of
the lithosphere is directly connected to flow within the
asthenosphere.
The Earth’s Interior
The Earth’s interior is divided as follows:
1. Crust (5–40 km thick): The thin outer skin of the planet.
2. Mantle (2,885 km thick): The origin of most magma.
3. Core (3,486 km thick): A dense, metal-rich ball inside
the Earth. The core is composed of the liquid outer
core and solid inner core.
Plate Tectonics
Plates are the slabs of the Earth’s crust that make up the
lithosphere.
Plates and the Earth’s Crust
The Earth’s crust is composed of the continental crust (30–100
km thick; forms the continents) and the oceanic crust (about 10
km thick; denser than continental crust; mostly covered by
oceans).
Plate Tectonic Theory
Geologists developed plate tectonic theory as a model of
movement on Earth’s crust on the surface of our planet.
Observations and measurements of the processes that lead to
and result from this movement support the plate tectonic model.
Continental drift: In the early 1900s, scientists noticed
that, based on the continents’ shapes, it looked like the
continents could fit snugly together. Geologists
proposed that the continents gradually float around on
the surface of the planet, bumping into each other and
pulling apart.
Wilson cycle: In the 1960s, J. Tuzo Wilson proposed
that landmasses, over time, repeatedly join to form a
supercontinent—an amalgamation of all the continents
into one big mass—and subsequently split apart.
Isostasy: The concept that the crust ―floats‖ on the heavier
mantle in gravitational balance, like a block of ice in water.
Mountains have ―roots‖ that enable them to stay in
balance; bigger mountains have bigger roots.
When a great load is removed from Earth’s surface
(like when a glacier melts), the crust rebounds, or
gently rises, to maintain isostatic equilibrium.
Plate Boundaries
The plates meet at plate boundaries, which are the sites of most
earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain formation. There are three
types of plate boundaries:
1. Convergent boundary: The margin between two
plates that are moving toward each other. Plate
convergence leads to ocean-ocean, ocean-continent,
or continent-continent collision.
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1. Subduction: Dense oceanic crust sinks

beneath less dense continental crust at a
convergent boundary. In this setting, a deep
oceanic trench forms along the coast above
the subduction zone, and volcanoes arise
on the continental plate. An example of
ocean continent convergence is seen today
in the Aleutian Arc of Alaska.
2. This convergence eventually leads to
continent-continent collision and mountain
formation as two landmasses crumple into
each other. A classic example of this
mountain formation is the convergence
between India and Asia, which continues to
build the Himalayan chain and the tallest
mountain in the world, Mt. Everest.
3. “Ring of Fire”: The circumference of the Earthquakes and Seismology
Pacific Ocean, bounded by subduction
zones at the edges of the Pacific plate, that
is the site of many volcanoes. Faults
2. Divergent boundary (spreading center): The margin
between two plates, usually both oceanic, that are Fault: A fracture in the Earth’s crust caused by stress. There are
moving away from each other. Plates grow at several different types of faults:
spreading centers, which are often coincident with mid-
ocean ridges like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At a mid- 1. Normal fault: A fault in which the hanging wall (the
ocean ridge, magma rises from the asthenosphere, block of crust above the fault) moves down relative to
pushing the plates apart and accreting, or sticking the footwall (the block of crust below the fault) as a
onto, the sides of the plates. The plates widen in result of extension.
parallel strips as they diverge from each other. This is 2. Reverse fault: A fault in which the hanging wall moves
also the source of magnetic striping on the sea floor up relative to the footwall as a result of compression.
(see Magnetic polarity reversals). 3. Strike-slip fault: A fault in which two blocks of crust
3. Transform boundary: The margin between two plates slide past each other on the same plane. The San
that are sliding past each other. Transform boundaries Andreas Fault is a strike-slip fault.
are prominent features on sea floors, where they
connect offset mid ocean ridge segments. The most
famous transform boundary is along the San Andreas
Fault in California, where the Pacific and North
American plates slide past each other.

Deformation

Rock layers crumple when the Earth’s crust is subject to stresses.

These stresses may result in folds (warping or bending of rock
layers, such as in the diagram below) or faults (fractures in the
crust).
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1. Primary waves (P waves): Body waves that

compress and expand rock in the direction
the waves travel (like a slinky).
2. Secondary waves (S waves): Body waves
that shake material at right angles to the
direction the waves travel (like shaking a
rope). Solid rock transmits S waves, but
gases and liquids do not.

Measuring Earthquakes

Geologists use the Richter scale to assign magnitude to

earthquakes by assessing the amplitude (height) of the largest
seismic wave each earthquake creates. Each additional unit of
magnitude denotes a tenfold increase in the power of the
earthquake (e.g., a magnitude 7.0 earthquake is ten times more
powerful than a magnitude 6.0).

Locating Earthquakes

The exact location of an earthquake’s epicenter is determined

through triangulation, which requires several seismometers
(instruments that record seismic waves) stationed around the
world.

1. Seismometers record P wave arrival first, followed by

S wave arrival.
1. The time difference in arrival is used to
calculate the distance from the
seismometer to the earthquake epicenter.
2. However, this measurement tells only the
distance to the earthquake, not the direction
in which it lies.
2. To determine location, each of three stations draws a
circle around their station location with the radius of
Earthquakes
the distance it calculated. The epicenter is at the
intersection of the three circles.
Earthquake: A vibration of the Earth caused by slippage along a
fault.

1. Hypocenter (focus): The exact location of an

earthquake (often far below the surface).
2. Epicenter: The point on the Earth’s surface directly
above the hypocenter.
3. Foreshocks: Small earthquakes that commonly
precede a major earthquake.
4. Aftershocks: Small earthquakes that commonly occur
after a major earthquake.

Seismic Waves

Energy travels away from an earthquake’s focus in waves, both

through the Earth and along its surface. Different types of seismic
waves include:

1. Surface waves: Seismic waves that travel along the Earthquake Aftermath
Earth’s surface.
2. Body waves: Seismic waves that travel through the
Earth’s interior. There are two types:
General Science. 
In addition to causing great destruction at the epicenter, an
earthquake sometimes triggers other natural disasters.
1. Tsunami: A massive wave created when an
earthquake shakes coastal or undersea land.
Tsunamis have a short height but a long length (see
Shorelines), causing amplification of tides.
1. Tsunamis are especially dangerous
because they cause low tides to be very
low. While people are walking the freshly
exposed beach, the high tide comes in
quickly and much higher than normal.
2. A tsunami can move thousands of miles
across the ocean at hundreds of miles per
hour. An earthquake in Japan, for instance,
can send a tsunami all the way to Hawaii.
2. Landslide: A fast-moving wall of dirt and mud that an
earthquake shakes loose. Landslides are primarily a
problem in hilly, populated regions like Southern
California.
Seismic Imaging
The study of seismic waves has revealed much about the
structure and composition of the Earth’s interior.
1. Seismic waves travel at different speeds through
different materials. As seismic waves travel through
Earth, their velocity increases abruptly below the crust
(at a compositional break called the Moho), decreases
beneath the lithosphere, and changes abruptly again
at the mantle/core boundary.
2. Geologists have thus been able to ―see‖ Earth’s
interior. The only other evidence we have of its
makeup is from volcanic material.
Minerals
Minerals are earth materials that have four main characteristics:
they are solid, inorganic, naturally occurring, and have a definite
chemical structure.
Mineral Properties
Mineral Groups
Minerals are identifiable based on a number of specific properties:
1. Crystal form: The outward expression of a mineral’s
chemical structure. For example, quartz has a
hexagonal, or 6-sided, crystal form.
2. Cleavage: Planes of weakness in the mineral’s crystal
lattice along which the mineral tends to break.
Cleavage faces are usually flat surfaces.
3. Fracture: If a mineral lacks cleavage, it fractures in an
irregular, jagged manner.
4. Hardness: The resistance of a mineral to being
scratched. Geologists use the Mohs scale to assign
each mineral a hardness between 1 (softest) and 10
(hardest).
The Mohs hardness scale
Hardness Mineral
10 diamond
9 corundum
8 topaz
7 quartz
6 feldspar
5 apatite
4 fluorite
3 calcite
2 gypsum
1 talc
5. Streak: The color a mineral leaves when rubbed
across a piece of unglazed porcelain.
o A mineral’s visible color is not a reliable
diagnostic property. A single mineral may
vary in color from sample to sample, but its
streak color does not. For example, quartz
may be clear, gray, purple, or pink, but its
streak is always colorless.
6. Luster: The way light reflects off a mineral’s surface.
Luster may be described as vitreous (glassy), metallic,
pearly, silky, or dull.
7. Specific gravity: The comparison of a mineral’s
weight to the weight of an equal volume of water
(water’s specific gravity is 1). The greater a mineral’s
specific gravity, the greater its density.
8. Other diagnostic properties: Some minerals are
magnetic, some taste salty, and some fizz when
hydrochloric acid is dropped on them.
1. Silicates: The most common mineral group. Silicates
have a framework of silicon (Si) and oxygen (O), the
two most common elements in the Earth’s crust.
1. Silicon-oxygen tetrahedron: The basic
silicate structure, which consists of four
oxygen atoms around a central silicon
atom.
2. Silicate minerals can form from:
1. A single tetrahedron (e.g.,
olivine)
2. Single chains (pyroxenes, e.g.,
augite)
3. Double chains (amphiboles, e.g.
hornblende)
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4. Sheets (micas, e.g., muscovite,
biotite)
5. Three-dimensional networks
(e.g., feldspar, quartz)
2. Nonsilicates: Less common but also important rock-
forming minerals.
1. Carbonates: Contain carbon and oxygen in
a carbonate group (CO3). Calcite (CaCO3),
which forms limestone and marble, is a
common carbonate.
2. Oxides: Usually consist of oxygen and
another element. Common oxides include
ice (H2O) and magnetite (Fe3O4).
3. Sulfides: Contain sulfur ions. Pyrite, or
―fool’s gold,‖ is a common sulfide.
4. Sulfates: Contain sulfur and oxygen in a
sulfate group (SO4). Gypsum, a material
used in buildings, is a common sulfate.
5. Halides: Contain a ―salt‖ ion such as Na, Cl,
or F. Halite, or common table salt (NaCl), is
a halide.
6. Native elements: Minerals that exist in pure
elemental form. Native elements include
gold (Au), silver (Ag), and copper (Cu).
Common Rock-Forming Materials
1. Felsic minerals: Comprise over 50% of the Earth’s
crust. Felsic minerals are silicates that are light in
color, contain little iron and magnesium, and have
abundant silica.
1. Quartz (SiO2): Has vitreous luster; lacks
cleavage but has conchoidal fracture
(smooth, curved fracture like that of glass);
lacks streak; and is usually gray in color but
can be pink, purple, or black.
2. Feldspars:Potassium feldspar (KAlSi3O8)
and plagioclase ((Ca,Na)AlSi3O8) both have
distinct cleavage planes that meet at about
a 90° angle. Potassium feldspar usually is
cream or pink in color, whereas plagioclase
usually is in a range between white and
light gray.
3. Mica: A family of sheet silicates, including
silvery muscovite and black biotite. Micas
are important minerals and often give rocks
a sparkly appearance.
2. Mafic minerals: Contain iron and/or magnesium,
making them dark.
1. Olivine ((Fe, Mg)2SiO4): Has glassy luster,
conchoidal fracture, and is usually dark
green. Olivine is a major component of the
upper mantle.
2. Pyroxenes: Usually dark green to black,
with distinctive cleavage planes that meet
at right angles. Pyroxenes form a group of
chemically complex minerals, the most
common of which is augite, which are
common in oceanic crust.
3. Amphiboles: A complex group,
distinguished from pyroxenes on sight by
their cleavage planes, which meet at 60°
and 120°. The most common is hornblende.
Rocks and Their Environments
Rocks are aggregates of minerals.
Igneous Rocks
1. As magma (molten material) cools, ions arrange
themselves into orderly patterns during crystallization.
There are two types of crystallization:
1. Volcanic (extrusive): Magma crystallizes
quickly at spreading centers and from
volcanic eruptions.
2. Plutonic (intrusive): Magma crystallizes
slowly deep below the Earth’s surface.
2. Magma’s rate of cooling affects crystal size and
mineral composition. Fast cooling results in smaller
crystals, more mafic; slow cooling results in larger
crystals, more felsic.
1. Glass: No crystals. Forms when magma
cools too rapidly to form crystals.
2. Fine-grained (aphanitic): Crystals too small
to distinguish individual minerals with the
unaided eye. Gas bubbles leave openings
or vesicles. Aphanitic rocks form quickly at
Earth’s surface or in the upper crust
(volcanic).
3. Coarse-grained (phaneritic): Crystals large
enough to distinguish minerals with the
naked eye. Phaneritic rocks form in a slowly
cooling magma chamber deep in the crust
(plutonic).
4. Porphyritic: Large crystals in a matrix of
smaller crystals. Porphyritic rocks form
when magma crystallizes rapidly, forming a
fine-grained matrix, but then moves to a
slower-cooling environment before all the
melt has crystallized. The remaining melt
forms large crystals.
3. Bowen’s reaction series: The geologist N. L. Bowen
(1887–1956) created a chart showing the series in
which different minerals crystallize from cooling
magma:
o On the left side: Mafic minerals begin to
crystallize. After each mineral crystallizes, it
reacts with the remaining magma to form
the next mineral in the series.
o On the right side: Felsic, calcium-rich
minerals crystallize to form early feldspars,
which then react with sodium in the
remaining magma to form more sodium-rich
feldspars.
o At the bottom of the series: When magma
crystallization is nearly complete, the
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remaining magma is mostly SiO2, and
quartz forms.
Volcanoes
1. Volcanoes form where magma burns through the
crust, at subduction zones, at spreading centers, or at
―hot spots‖ like Hawaii.
1. Successive eruptions build a cone of
hardened lava. Eruptions are explosive
(pyroclastic) if the magma is gas-rich and
felsic, slow if the magma is gas-poor and
mafic.
2. Although volcanoes typically form at
subduction zones or spreading centers,
they also may form within a plate, as in the
Yellowstone region of Wyoming.
2. Volcano morphology
1. Crater: The pit inside a volcano. A crater
more than 1 km wide is called a caldera.
2. Vent: A pipelike structure connecting the
underground magma chamber to the crater.
3. Types of volcanoes
1. Shield volcano: A broad, slightly domed
structure typically built of liquid basalt. The
Hawaiian volcanoes are shield volcanoes.
2. Composite cone (stratovolcano): A large,
nearly symmetrical cone made of
alternating lava flows and pyroclastic
volcanic debris.
3. Cinder cone: A generally small volcano
with steep sides, built from ejected lava
fragments and often in groups near larger
volcanoes.
4. Volcanic rocks
1. Basalt: Dark green to black, fine-grained,
mostly pyroxene and plagioclase feldspar,
with some olivine. The ocean floor is mostly
basalt.
2. Tuff: Hardened ash from an explosive
volcano.
5. Plutons are the site of plutonic rock formation. Most
magma in the Earth is deep underground, in chambers
that cool slowly or rise slowly to intrude into preexisting
rock.
1. Plutonic rocks
1. Gabbro: Has a basaltic
composition (mafic) but large
grain size.
2. Granite: A phaneritic igneous
rock with 25–35% quartz and
more than 50% feldspar, with
hornblende, muscovite and
biotite.
2. Pluton forms
1. Batholith: A large expanse of
granitic rock (more than 100
km2). Batholiths frequently form
the cores of mountains, exposed
only after much of the ground
surface erodes.
2. Sill: A lateral layer of igneous
rock formed when fluid basaltic
magma rises from a magma
General Science. 

chamber and squeezes into Marble is composed of

horizontal strata. interlocking calcite grains.
3. Dike: A vertical or angled layer 2. Quartzite: Metamorphosed
of igneous rock that cuts across quartz sandstone. Quartzite is
other rock layers, usually by very hard and is composed of
injection into fractures. interlocking quartz grains.
3. Hornfels: Fine-grained rock
altered in contact zones around
igneous intrusions.

Metamorphic Rocks Sedimentary Rocks

1. High temperature, high pressure, or variable chemical 1. When weather and other forces of erosion wear away
conditions can change country (preexisting) rocks rocks, sediments form. Those sediments can be
through the process of metamorphism. Rocks remain compacted, through lithification, to form sedimentary
solid during the process. rocks.
1. Regional metamorphism: An extensive 1. Erosion: The transport of material around
volume of the crust is metamorphosed, Earth’s surface by a mobile agent like water
usually by intensive compression at or wind. Erosion and weathering form
convergent boundaries. sediments and soil.
2. Contact metamorphism: Intruding magma 1. Mechanical (physical)
heats cold country rock nearby and causes weathering: Rocks break into
it to recrystallize. smaller pieces, with each piece
3. Metasomatism: Hot fluids dissolve original retaining the original mineral
minerals, and then chemical reactions composition.
cause new minerals to grow.  Frost wedging:
2. Rocks undergo both mineral and textural changes Water freezes and
during metamorphism. expands in a rock,
1. Mineral changes: During metamorphism, breaking off
two minerals can react, and their ions can fragments.
diffuse across grain boundaries, resulting in  Unloading: Erosion
a new mineral. Alternatively, complex removes material
minerals may break down into simpler ones. from above buried
2. Textural changes: Rocks gain foliation rock. Pieces pop off
(alignment) as minerals align into bands. in response to the
With increasing temperature and pressure, lowered pressure.
grain size increases and texture coarsens.  Biological activity:
3. Classification: Metamorphic rocks are classified by Roots wedge into and
strength of metamorphism. The following are listed in widen rock fractures,
order from weak to strong metamorphism: or animals burrow
1. Foliated rocks: into soil and expose
1. Slate: A fine-grained rock, rock to the surface.
usually made of metamorphosed 2. Chemical weathering: Rocks
fine sediments. break down chemically, and their
2. Phyllite: Similar to slate but constituent minerals alter during
slightly coarser-grained, and the process.
shiny due to high mica content.  Oxidation: Water
3. Schist: A coarse-textured (H2O) is the strongest
metamorphic rock, with minerals chemical weathering
aligned in parallel bands, agent. It causes iron-
containing more than 50% platy rich rocks to oxidize,
minerals (minerals with a planar, or rust.
layered structure) like mica.  Ionization: CO2 + H2O
4. Gneiss: Bands of abundant → carbonic acid,
coarse grains, mostly feldspar which breaks granite
and quartz, alternated with down into clay
bands of flaky minerals. minerals.
2. Nonfoliated rocks: 2. Lithification: After erosion and weathering,
1. Marble: Metamorphosed sediments cement to form sedimentary
limestone with a sugary texture. rocks.
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2. Sedimentary settings: Sedimentary rocks can form  Well sorted: One

anywhere on or just below the Earth’s surface, in dry grain size and type
or wet environments. dominates the rock’s
3. Classification: Sedimentary rocks may be classified composition.
in several different ways:  Poorly sorted: The
1. Based on origin: rock is composed of
1. Detrital sediments: Sediments grains of many sizes
that are fragments of broken- and compositions.
down rock. They are listed here 3. Based on sedimentary structure:
in order of decreasing grain size: 1. The method of sediment
 Breccia: Lithified deposition often imparts a
angular blocks of distinctive pattern on a package
rock. of sedimentary rocks.
 Conglomerate: 2. Bedding planes: The planes
Lithified round rock that separate strata (layers) of
fragments, pebble- sedimentary rock. Often, these
sized and larger. planes are the planes along
 Sandstone: which the rock breaks.
Cemented sand.  Cross-bedding: Wind
 Shale: Compacted or waves deposit
clay, mud, or silt. sediments in an
2. Chemical and biochemical upsweeping pattern.
sediments: Sediments that form  Graded bedding:
from minerals that precipitate Grain size becomes
from water, either physically or coarser or finer from
biologically (as organisms pull the bottom to the top
elements out of water to make of a layer.
their skeletons):
 Limestone (CaCO3):
Formed from
cemented fragments
of any size of shell.
 Chert: Cemented
shells made of silica.
3. Evaporites: Sediments that
form as water evaporates from a
closed basin and the solution
becomes supersaturated with
certain elements, which then
precipitate out as minerals like
halite.
4. Coal: An organic material that
nonetheless is considered a
sedimentary rock because it
consists of compacted plant
matter.
2. Based on grain size and sorting: The Rock Cycle
1. Grain size: The physical size of
individual grains that make up 1. Heat, pressure, erosion, and other forces are always at
sedimentary rock. work on the Earth, changing the composition of rocks:
 Gravel (>2 mm) forms from igneous to sedimentary, sedimentary to
conglomerate, metamorphic, igneous to metamorphic, and so on.
breccia
 Sand (1/16–2 mm)
forms sandstone,
greywacke
 Mud (<1/16 mm)
forms shale,
mudstone
2. Sorting: The degree of variety
of grain size and composition
within a sedimentary rock.
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1. Submarine canyons: Deep, steep-sided

underwater valleys, possibly former river
channels.
2. Turbidity currents: Sediment-laden water
at the continental slope. Turbidity currents
often flow downward, eroding the slope and
entraining (drawing along and transporting)
more sediment.
3. Turbidites (deep-sea fans): Sediments
deposited by turbidity currents on the
continental rise. Turbidites typically are
composed of sequences of sediments that
are coarse grained at the bottom and fine-
grained at the top.

2. These continual conversions from one type of rock to

another are collectively termed the rock cycle.
1. All rocks exposed at Earth’s surface are
subject to weathering, which leads to the
formation of sediments. Shorelines
2. All sediments are subject to burial, after
which they are undergo lithification
(cementation and compaction) to form 1. Tides: Daily changes in ocean surface height caused
sedimentary rocks. by the gravitational attraction between the Earth and
3. All rocks can be exposed to heat and the moon. This gravitational attraction leads to
pressure, which often leads to formation of rhythmic rising and falling of the waterline.
metamorphic rock. 2. Currents: Continuous flows of water in one direction.
4. When metamorphic rocks melt into magma, 3. Waves: Water surface ripples generated by wind.
the magma sometimes cools and 1. Wave crest: The top peak of a wave, vs.
crystallizes into igneous rock. trough, the lowest point between waves.
2. Wave height: The vertical distance from
trough to peak.
Continental Edges and the Ocean Floor 3. Wavelength: The horizontal distance from
one wave peak to the next.
The edge of each continent gradually slopes downward 4. Waves begin to slow when water depth is
underwater for a number of miles offshore. After this gradual 1/2 the wavelength. When wave height is
sloping, there is a sudden drop onto the deep sea floor. 1/7 of the wavelength, the wave breaks, or
collapses. Breaking waves carve the
1. Continental margin: The stretch of crust from the shoreline.
4. Beach: The sloping shoreline made of sediments
shoreline to the deep sea. The continental margin
moved by waves, tides, and currents.
includes the:
1. Continental shelf: The zone of gently 1. Offshore: The region below the low tide
line.
sloping underwater ground where the water
2. Foreshore: The region between the low
gradually deepens.
2. Shelf break: The sudden drop at end of the tide line and above the flat beach.
3. Backshore: The region landward of the
continental shelf.
beach face.
3. Continental slope: The steep underwater
4. Berm: A small hill of sediments just above
cliff after the shelf break.
the flat beach area. Gentle waves build the
4. Continental rise: The gentle slope at the
berm up in summer, and storms carve the
base of the break. The continental rise is at
berm away in winter.
the end of the continental margin and leads
to the abyssal plain.
5. Abyssal plain: The very flat, deep-ocean
floor.
2. Undersea features: Water and sediment eroding from
the continents leave imprints on the continental
margin. The continental slope can be unstable.
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Deserts and Wind
1. Deserts form in land areas with low precipitation
(typically less than 25 cm of rain per year).
2. Wind: The movement of air on the Earth’s surface
stems from the uneven distribution of solar heat. Hot
air rises over the equator, drops out moisture, and
descends as cool, dry air over latitudes 30 N and 30 S.
Deserts are found at these latitudes.
Wind-Created Features
Wind is a strong sculpting agent. It carves away rocks and
sediments and deposits sediments elsewhere.
1. Bed load: The sand grains and other particles that
wind (or water) carries on or just above the ground.
2. Suspended load: The fine particles that wind (or water)
keeps aloft.
3. Saltation: The ―jumping‖ of sand grains due to strong
wind. Wind blowing perpendicular to a surface
decreases the pressure on that surface. When the
inertia of a sand grain is overcome, it begins to roll.
When it hits other grains, they bounce into the air,
where they are carried forward until gravity pulls them
back down.
4. Deflation: A process by which wind carries fine
particles away and leaves a compact surface of larger
pebbles.
5. Dunes: Sand mounds or ridges that the wind creates.
Dunes have a steep side called a slip face. Types of
dunes include:
1. Barchan dune: A solitary dune shaped like
a horseshoe, with its tips pointing away
from the wind. Barchan dunes form on flat
surfaces where sand supply is low.
2. Transverse dune: A long ridge of sand
oriented perpendicular to the direction of
the wind. Transverse dunes form where
wind is steady and sand is plentiful.
3. Longitudinal dune: A dune that forms
parallel to wind direction, in places where
sand supply is limited.
4. Parabolic dune: A dune shaped like a
barchan dune but with its tips pointing into
the wind. Parabolic dunes form on beaches
with abundant sand and are partly covered
by vegetation.
Glaciers and Glaciation
Glacier: A large mass of ice, formed on land by compaction of
snow, that flows downhill from snow accumulated at the head.
Glaciers survive by accumulating more snow each year than they
lose to snowmelt.
1. Alpine glacier (valley glacier): A glacier in mountains
that flows down channels previously eroded by
streams.
2. Piedmont glacier: A glacier that forms when several
valley glaciers flow out onto land at the front of a
mountain range and merge with one another.
3. Ice sheet (continental glacier): A large expanse of
ice that flows in all directions.
Locations
Most expanses of ice on Earth are at the extreme latitudes, where
the weather remains consistently cold. Greenland, in the north,
houses one huge ice sheet, and Antarctica, in the south, is the
site of the other. Together, these ice sheets cover 10% of the
Earth’s land surface. Smaller ice sheets are found at high
altitudes, in places like Alaska, Canada, and the Alps.
Formation and Morphology
1. Snow line: The line above which more snow falls than
melts in a year, creating permanent snow cover.
2. Firn: Packed snow that turns into ice over time. Under
pressure, the boundaries of ice grains melt, and the
grains refreeze together, forming the interlocking ice
crystals that comprise a glacier.
3. Glacial terminus: The front toe of a glacier.
4. Ablation: The direct conversion of ice into vapor.
Glaciers lose mass by this process.
5. Zone of fracture: The upper 35 meters of glacial ice,
where ice responds rigidly to stress by cracking.
6. Zone of plastic flow: The area of glacial ice 35
meters below the surface and deeper. In this zone,
glaciers deform under their own weight. Squeezing
and flow therefore are greatest where the glacial ice is
thickest.
General Science. 

Erosion and Landforms

Glaciers carve the landscape as they flow and leave deposits in

their wakes.

1. Glaciers cause erosion in several ways:

1. Plucking: Glacial melt water runs into rock
crevices, freezes, expands, and causes
fragments to break off.
2. Abrasion: Rocks entrained in the bottom of
a glacier grind against the surface over
which the glacier flows. Abrasion causes
glacial striations, parallel grooves worn into
bedrock.
2. Glacial movements can create many different
landforms:
1. Cirque: An amphitheater-shaped scoop out
of bedrock, caused by plucking.
2. Arête: A knife-edged rock ridge between
adjoining cirques.
3. Glacial trough: A valley with a U-shaped
bottom, carved by a glacier.
4. Fjord: A glacial trough that extends into the
sea.
5. Till: Unlayered sediments deposited by a
glacier. Till often includes boulders, gravel,
sand, and clay together.
6. Moraine: A ridge of till left behind by a
retreating (melting) glacier. Types of
moraines include:
1. Terminal moraine: The ridge
left behind at the farthest point a
glacier reaches (the line of
maximum advance).
2. Lateral moraine: A long, narrow
mound of till that forms parallel
to the glacier’s direction of
motion (as a line within the
glacier).
7. Glacial erratic: A large boulder that a
glacier carries from its place of origin and
drops in a different place.
8. Drumlin: A low, rounded hill of till, with a
tapered end pointed in the direction the
glacier flowed. The other end has a steep,
squared face.
9. Outwash plain: A large sheet of stratified
sediment deposited by melt water
streaming out of the toe of a glacier.
10. Esker: A winding ridge of sediment left
behind when a glacier melts.
11. Kettle: A scoured depression in an outwash
plain, formed when a block of glacial ice is
left behind, buried, and melts.
Ice Ages
Over geologic time, the Earth has undergone periods of extreme
cold during which ice sheets expanded, and periods during which
glacial ice melted (see Climate Change).
Other Erosive Forces
Mass Wasting
Mass wasting is movement of rocks and soil caused by the
loosening effects of water and the downward force of gravity.
There are several types of mass wasting.
1. Creep: Slow earth movement that has effects seen
only after some time. Creep usually occurs where soil
freezes, expands, thaws, and settles. Evidence of
creep is seen in tilted telephone poles and cemetery
headstones.
2. Fall: The unrestrained fall of rock fragments off a cliff.
A rock fall creates talus—fields of rock fragments that
collect at the bottom of a cliff.
3. Slide: The breaking off of rocks or soil from a plane of
weakness and their subsequent slide down the face of
a steep slope.
4. Slump: A type of slide that involves intact blocks of
rock sliding down a concave surface.
5. Flow: The quick movement of water-soaked
sediments down a slope in one large mass. Flow
occurs when these water-soaked sediments are
shaken.
6. Solifluction: The flow of watery soil due to repeated
thawing and freezing, as happens to a dirt road after
winter.

The Water Cycle

Hydrologic Cycle
General Science. 
Stream Flow and Transport
The Earth’s water supply is always in motion, going through an
unending cycle of water running from the land to the sea,
precipitating, evaporating, and reprecipitating. Water is always
recycled or moved from place to place—never completely
destroyed or created anew.
1. Runoff: Water that flows off the land surface into
rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans.
2. Transpiration: The process by which plants release
the water they absorb into the atmosphere.
3. Water budget: Most of the Earth’s water is contained
in the oceans, but other reservoirs hold significant
water as well. Geologists measure the Earth’s water
supply in terms of volume (measured in km3):
1. Oceans: 1,350,000,000
2. Glaciers: 27,500,000
3. Groundwater: 8,200,000
4. Lakes: 205,000
5. Atmosphere: 13,000
6. Streams: 1,700
Stream Settings
Streams
Streams are channeled flows of any amount of water. Although
streams hold only a small percentage of the Earth’s water at any
given time, the energy of streams has done much to sculpt the
landscape. Stream energy is controlled by channel size and
slope.
1. Gradient: The steepness of land over which a stream
flows. As a stream flows down a slope, its potential
energy converts to kinetic energy. The steeper the
gradient, the faster the stream flows.
2. Base level: The lowest level to which a stream can
erode its channel. Oceans are considered the ultimate
base level because they are the final destination of
streams. More often, local base levels like lakes,
dams, or stream junctions control stream flow.
3. Cross section: The area of water in a cross-sectional
slice of a stream. For a flat stream, cross section is
calculated by multiplying depth by width. For a semi-
circular stream, it is calculated using stream radius:
(1/2)πr2.
4. Discharge: The volume of water that flows past a
certain point in a stream over a measured time
interval. Discharge is calculated by multiplying the
cross section of the stream by the velocity of the
stream.
1. Water can flow within a stream in two ways:
1. Laminar flow: In slow-moving streams,
water flows in parallel paths.
2. Turbulent flow: In fast-moving streams
and in rough stream channels, water swirls
around as it moves down a gradient.
2. Capacity: The amount of sediment a stream can carry
past a certain point in a given time.
3. Competence: A measure of how strong a stream is,
based on the biggest size of an object the stream can
move.
4. Saltation: Skipping and bouncing of particles on the
bottom of a stream caused by water flow pushing the
particles.
5. Load: The material a stream carries. There are
several types:
1. Bed load: Heavy objects dragged along a
stream bottom.
2. Suspended load: Fine particles carried
suspended in a stream’s moving water.
3. Dissolved load: Material (salt, carbonate,
or other ions) dissolved in the stream water.
6. Graded stream: A stream with a slope and channel
that have adjusted enough over time so that the
stream has just enough energy to carry its load, but no
excess energy so that it erodes its banks.
1. Alluvial fan: A gently sloping blanket of alluvium, or
sediment deposited by a stream, where it exits a gully
onto a flatter surface
2. Flood plain: A plain surrounding a stream. Streams
periodically overflow their banks or move laterally
across surrounding flood plains, leaving layers of
sediments in their wake.
3. Delta: The mouth of a stream, where the stream slows
due to a gentler gradient and deposits much of its
sediments as it moves to base level.
4. Tributary: A small stream that flows into a larger
stream.
5. Drainage system: All the land area that contributes to
a stream system. A continental divide is a ridge that
separates streams flowing in opposite directions on
either side. For example, the Great Divide in the
United States follows the Rocky Mountains: all
streams east of the divide flow east to the Atlantic,
whereas all streams west of the divide flow west to the
Pacific.
General Science. 
Stream Shapes and Patterns
There are several types of streams and drainage patterns, which
are dictated by landforms and also shape those landforms.
Whereas glaciers carve flat-bottomed, U-shaped valleys, streams
carve sharp canyons, or V-shaped valleys.
1. Braided stream: A stream that divides into smaller
streams. When a stream gradient decreases, its flow
slows, causing the stream to branch into smaller
subchannels. Braided streams are common on alluvial
fans and glacial outwash plains.
2. Meandering stream: A stream that carves a path
sideways and forms wide loops, called meanders, as it
flows downstream. Often, when water in a stream
flows over a bump, ripples are created that deflect
water toward one side of the stream and carve into the
side. This sideways flow creates a bend in the
channel, and water flowing out of this bend then
deflects toward the opposite side of the stream,
carving a bend there.
1. Point bar: Sediment deposited in the inner
curves of a meandering stream. The stream
moves slowest in these inner curves, so the
stream drops sediment here.
2. Oxbow lake: A lake that splits off from a
meandering stream when erosion carves a
straight channel that cuts off the flow into
one of the stream’s meanders.
3. Streams can follow several different drainage patterns:
1. Dendritic drainage: Several substreams
branch out from a main stream in a treelike
pattern.
2. Radial drainage: Streams run in all
directions from a central high point.
3. Rectangular drainage: Streams make
right-angled turns, following rectangular
fracture patterns in the bedrock over which
they flow.
4. Trellis drainage: Tributaries flow
perpendicular to the main channel,
following parallel beds of weak strata.
Trellis drainage often occurs in tilted or
folded rocks.
Groundwater
Groundwater is surface water that seeps into the ground. It
constitutes 95% of the Earth’s supply of fresh water (outside of
glaciers) and feeds not only humans and crops but also streams
and lakes.
Groundwater Distribution and Movement
1. The ground under the surface of the Earth’s
landmasses is divided into two zones based on the
presence or absence of groundwater:
1. Zone of aeration: The area just below
ground in which spaces between rocks and
soil are filled with air.
2. Zone of saturation: The area below the
zone of aeration in which the spaces
between particles are filled with water. The
top level of the zone of saturation is called
the water table. The water in the zone of
saturation is groundwater.
2. The porosity and permeability of soil and rock dictate
the accumulation and movement of groundwater.
1. Porosity: The ratio of open spaces to
volume of material. Porosity is quantified in
percentages.
2. Permeability: A measure of the ease with
which sediments transport water.
Permeability is calculated as the volume of
water that can move through a cross-
section of sediments in a given time.
Permeability is classified on a scale from
very low to excellent.
 Sand typically has 20% porosity
and excellent permeability.
 Clay has a 50% porosity but
poor permeability.
3. The water table roughly follows topography, rising
slightly beneath hills and depressed beneath stream
channels. Where the land surface cuts low, the water
table intersects the land, typically at stream channels.
1. Effluent stream: A stream that gains water
from the zone of saturation, typically in wet
environments.
2. Influent stream: A stream that loses water
to the water table, typically in dry
environments.
3. Hydraulic gradient: The slope of the water
table. The hydraulic gradient, along with the
General Science. 
permeability of material through which
water flows, influences the speed of
groundwater flow.
4. Recharge area: An area (usually higher
elevation) that receives precipitation that
soaks into the zone of saturation.
5. Discharge area: An area (usually near a
stream) that receives groundwater from the
zone of saturation and carries it away.
6. When recharge and discharge are in
balance, the water table remains steady.
4. Groundwater availability is affected by the types of
rock underground and the flux of water on the Earth’s
surface.
1. Aquifer: An underground body of
permeable rock or sediment that conducts
water. Aquifers typically are composed of
sand or gravel.
2. Confining bed: A laterally continuous
sheet of rock that is impermeable to water
and prevents the escape of water from
aquifers. Typically, a confining bed is
composed of shale (see Sedimentary
Rocks).
1. Confined aquifer: An aquifer
between two confining beds.
2. Unconfined aquifer: An aquifer
above a confining bed.
Artesian well: A well drilled into a confined aquifer.
0. Confined aquifers cannot receive
precipitation from directly above;
instead, water seeps in from far
away on the sides, where the top
confining bed thins to nothing.
1. As a result, a confined aquifer
often has high water pressure.
When a well is drilled into the top
confining bed, water gushes
upward out of the confined
aquifer.
Perched water table: A pocket of groundwater
stranded above the main water table by a confining bed beneath it
Geology and Groundwater
Groundwater can move in confined channels underground,
carving out spaces like caves.
1. Cave: A crevice in a rock large enough for a person to
enter. Caves usually form when acidic water flows
through limestone formations and dissolves the
calcium carbonate. As this carbonate-rich water drips
off a cave ceiling, it forms:
1. Stalactites: Calcite deposits that hang from
a cave ceiling.
2. Stalagmites: Calcite spears that point up
from a cave floor.
2. When groundwater dissolves underground limestone,
strange topographical features may result:
1. Sinkhole: A depression that forms on the
surface when the roof of an underground
cavern collapses.
2. Karst topography: Irregular topography on
the surface that results when groundwater
below flows through an extensive area of
limestone, carving underground channels
and caverns until surface water flows only
underground. The land above these areas
takes on irregular patterns as it sinks into
various holes and grooves.
3. Geysers and hot springs: Features that form when
magma exists near the surface of the Earth (e.g., near
volcanoes) and heats the groundwater. Some water
turns to steam, expands, and erupts out of holes in the
ground in geysers. In other places, hot water trickles
out of springs.
Climate Change
The Earth’s climate has changed considerably over the planet’s
history. Scientists have determined that these changes occur in
cycles driven by a number of factors.
Climate Cycles
Evidence suggests that the Earth has experienced climate
cycles—alternating periods of extreme warmth and cold—
throughout geologic time.
1. Periods of glacial climate, which have fostered the
growth of glaciers, have alternated with interglacial
periods, during which temperatures are so warm that
glaciers melt.
2. During the Ice Age around 2–3 million years ago, ice
sheets spread over much of the Earth’s land surface.
About 55 million years ago, however, air and sea
temperatures were so warm that geologists think
glaciers melted away completely.
Driven by the Earth’s Orbit
Most geologists believe that these dramatic temperature changes
result from variations in the Earth’s orbit
General Science. 

1. In the 1920s, Serbian astrophysicist Milutin Driven by Humans

Milankovitch formulated a model of climate cycles
based on three properties of the Earth’s orbit: Today, as we burn fossil fuels that release CO 2 into the
1. Eccentricity: Changes in the shape of the atmosphere, we are experiencing human-induced climate change.
ellipse that the Earth traces as it orbits the
sun. The ellipse is at its longest once every
100,000 years.
2. Obliquity: The tilt of the Earth toward the
sun on its axis of rotation. The Earth’s
obliquity shifts between 21.5 and 24.5 every
40,000 years. When the tilt is greatest,
polar regions receive more summer sunlight
and less winter sunlight.
3. Precession: The wobble of the Earth on its
axis. Precession completes a full cycle
every 26,000 years and affects the intensity
of sunlight that reaches the Earth’s polar
regions.

2. These three cycles regularly reinforce each other. At

certain times, they combine to maximize the input of
solar radiation to the Earth, which leads to warming of
the Northern Hemisphere and glacial retreat. At other
times, they combine to minimize the heat that the
Northern Hemisphere receives, leading to glacial
advance.

Driven by Tectonics

1. When the Earth’s tectonic plates form a

supercontinent at high latitudes (see Plate
Tectonics), ice growth is encouraged. This
convergence of the continents is a rare event in Earth
history, however.
2. More frequently, extensive volcanism leads to
outpouring of CO2 into the atmosphere, which traps
heat and leads to a greenhouse effect.
3. Glaciers record climate change. Geologists are able
to drill cores out of glacial ice to measure the CO 2
content of the atmosphere at different times in the
past. They have determined that the CO2 content of
the Earth’s atmosphere has fluctuated over time and
that these fluctuations correspond to rising and falling
temperatures.